Macgasm

We don’t know what to believe anymore. Are Mac sales being eaten up by iPads this holiday season? Does the iPad mark a changing of the guard for old technology models like personal computers? Okay, these are exaggerations. The personal computer isn’t going anywhere fast, but Apple’s iPad just outsold Macs on Black Friday. There were 8.8 iPads sold per hour per store, and Macs were shipping at 8.2 per hour per store.

That’s down 0.1 percent for Macs over last year on Black Friday, according to Fortune’s Philip Elmet-DeWitt and based on findings from Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster. If there was ever a case against the cannibalization of a market, this might be it. Year over year, with the introduction of the iPad this year, the Mac market only declined 0.1 percent. This is not exactly indicative of a market where the iPad is eating the Mac for dinner, is it?

There was a bigger differential in Mac sales per hour between 2008 (13%) and 2009 (8.3%), than there was this year over last, and the 2009 and 2008 difference didn’t even have the iPad to contend with.

Perhaps the most telling analysis from the Fortune article is this, “we noticed that the iPad is gaining traction (driven by lower price vs. the Mac) among demographics in which the Mac has historically not been successful. The bottom line is that Apple’s addressable market is expanding with the iPad” (Fortune).  The iPad undoubtably makes a great introductory product to the Apple world, alongside the iPhone. It’s for reasons such as this that Apple’s looking to integrate some of the iOS models into the OS X lineup (Mac App Store, etc).

Could it really be this simple? Do Mac users see the iPad as a complementary device, and new adopters see it as a stepping stone into the world of Apple? It could explain how Mac sales are continuing on pace without much change.

Article Via Fortune and The Loop
Photo Credit: Wall Street Journal

Some time over the weekend, 9 to 5 Mac stumbled across an insider Apple blog titled CrApple Store. We didn’t get too much time with the blog — it was the weekend after all — but from what we saw, it was a pretty negative look at the life of an Apple Store employee.

The sentiment isn’t exactly new. Reviews are often mixed from Apple Store employees. Some love working at the store and others hate it. It’s pretty much like that at any retail job on the planet.

But, the poor soul behind the CrApple Store blog really must have hated the job, and now they probably hate the internet even more. The story spread like wildfire. Major blogs such as Gizmodo picked it up and ran with it. News got out fast, and the owner removed all of the posts quickly.

There was a lot of print worthy laughs on that blog, but Apple probably wouldn’t find excerpts like the following very funny:

“The first thing you’ll fucking hate is the opening a new store. You’d think from the cheering something major is happening, but really it just another fucking shop surrounded by other shit shops. Everyone whoops, cheers and delivers high fives all round, especially to the biggest loser of them all- the virgin at the front of the queue” (Quote Via Business Insider)

Business Insider has reached out to Apple to find out if the site was taken down by the author voluntarily or if Apple’s rabid lawyers leaned on him a little bit. They haven’t received an explanation from Apple at the time of this post.

One thing is for certain: the author no longer works for Apple, and he or she apparently left the store a “short while ago.”  Hopefully Apple gets in contact with the author to really try to figure out what happened in their store. No one likes working in a crappy environment.

Article Via 9 to 5 Mac and Business Insider

Hear that sound? That’s the sound of another nail going into Google TV’s coffin. Sony has cut the price on its Google TV enabled Blu-Ray player by $100, bringing the price down to $299. It’s a sign of desperation for Sony and Google, who have seen nearly all major content providers block access to content through the device in the few weeks since its launch. Even a catchy name like the NSZ-GT1 and a remote that looks like it came out of the early 90s won’t save it now.

Google’s troubled venture into internet streaming has turned into a non-starter, and unfortunately Sony has to suffer along with peripheral maker Logitech in Google’s downfall. Forced to cut their losses and bringing their price down to match the Logitech Revue, Sony is breaking with its usual strategy of holding prices steady until the next model comes out.

Google TV’s promise, free access to shows across the internet, will likely never be realized. It’s unfortunate, but you could have seen this coming. With as high a profile as Google, it was easy to shut Google TV out. You can, of course, still watch television shows on your computer, but as for the lean back experience of watching TV on your couch, you’ll have to find another way to get those shows, and it likely will cost you.

Article Via TechCrunch

Richard Branson is getting ready to take on Rupert Murdoch in a digital magazine battle-royale, which we reported on last week. Should you want some more information on those projects you can read about them here and here.

Today, “Project” has released a short video on Vimeo that shows their video-based iPadzine cover. Jeff Bridges and some Tron-inspired video take over the cover of the digital magazine.

It’s pretty exciting stuff, and it could be a look at the future of digital publishing as we know it. Project also has a website up where they’ve been publishing stories already.

Here’s the video

Project magazine cover video from Project on Vimeo.

Article Via The Next Web

AirPrint, what does that mean to you? Currently, it means buyings an HP model printer, because you’re unable to natively print to shared printers. To me, it meant no longer having to network my beast laser printer (which supports Bonjour, btw) and being able to print directly to the Lexmark printer from my iPad. Turns out I was wrong, because we still can’t print to shared printers on a network with the iPad and iOS 4.2.

A lot of earlier iPad adopters that I know, excluding the geekier bunch, list the lack of printing as a major downside of the iPad. Personally, I’ve moved beyond printing altogether, opting for a PDF model, but some people still rely on ink and paper daily.

We’re not the only ones that have a growing concern about the lack of printing on the iPad though. People are starting to email Steve Jobs directly, asking for clarifications.

Question [sic]

Dear Steve,

You got me all hype about AirPrint. Now with iOS 4.2 released, I find out that I can only print on 11 select printers. Seriously?!

Reply

Lots more coming soon. It’s what it takes to make a giant leap to driverless printing, which is huge.

So there you have it. Apple’s working on increasing the number of printers supported by AirPrint. But, what we don’t know is if we’re ever going to see network-based printing for older printers, assuming the email was legitimate in the first place.

I sure would love to see Bonjour-based printers supported in the near future. It shouldn’t be all that difficult for Apple, considering AirPrint might just be an extension of Bonjour in the first place.

Article Via Just Another iPad Blog

ZeptoLabs has just made good on a promise to include more levels in Cut The Rope. The game has been updated with 25 new levels.

The level pack, aptly titled the Cosmic Box, introduces inverted game physics, retina graphics, improved scoring accuracy, and new achievements.

Again, the update is free, so just go update your applications in iTunes and sync your phone for some more Cut the Rope goodness.

If you’re looking for a review of the application, our Matt Scobel put the game through the paces last week, and provided his thoughts in a post.

The iPhone App is $0.99, and the HD (iPad Version) is $1.99 on the App Store.

Article Via Touch Arcade

Steve Jobs stood on stage during the last Keynote, unveiled the sleek MacBook Air, and then in what seemed like a moment of triumph, told the crowd that they can expect similar things from all MacBook models in the future. And like that, the rumor mill kicked into high gear, prognostications ran rampant, and everyone assumed that meant that the MacBook Air form factor and solid-state hard drives are coming in the near future to the MacBook Pro lineup.

This particular rumor seems to have some legs, as well-connected individuals in the Apple news world seem to all be in agreement. Solid-state drives (SSD), Light Peak, and no optical drives seem to be on the horizon in Cupertino.

Everyone’s been speculating about SSD in the MacBook Pro lineup since the release of the MacBook Air, but Light Peak is something that’s gotten very little press time from the Apple echo-chamber that we live in, but it’s starting to pick up a little bit. Peter Cohen, Grant, and I even chatted about Light Peak potential in future Apple products in Episode 343 of our “daily” podcast over a week ago.

The technology is surely on the minds of geeks, and more particularly Apple geeks, because Light Peak is apparently a joint venture between Intel and Apple (which is open for debate, btw), and it’s been rumoured that Apple will have the rights and exclusivity to Light Peak in their products early on.

The rumor goes something like this: The National Association of Broadcasters conference will be happening in April, and Apple would love to have revamped MacBook Pros, Mac Pros, and Final Cut Studio announced and ready to ship by the time the conference rolls around. This would mean that an announcement in the spring (March – April) is a likely bet.

Personally, I think the form factor and SSD drives are a likely option if Apple manages to figure out how to get more hard drive space into the MacBook Pros. I don’t know one professional who hasn’t complained about hard drive size in the Air (64GB – 256 GB). Apple knows this, and probably has a solution up their sleeves (data doubler anyone?). We also know that a “kickass” release of Final Cut Studio is coming soon, according to a terse email from Jobs. But, Light Peak has remained off the radar, and there’s no real indication that Apple’s been thinking about adopting it just yet. The previous rumors seem to be safer bets this time around, but the inclusion of Light Peak isn’t exactly that hard to believe either. Apple has a knack for embracing innovation long before others manufacturers do, and early reports had Light Peak slated for release to manufacturers by late 2010.

So maybe Light Peak is ready to ship.

Article Via Edible Apple and Slashgear

When you’ve got a device that’s as popular as the iPhone, and an operating system that’s as game changing as iOS, you prepare for war. A sales war is usually expected by consumers at some point, but when it comes to the continued success of an A-list product, a patent war usually takes place as well.

Someone, somewhere usually files a patent complaint. On occasion it’s a patent troll. Sometimes it’s someone who’s trying to stall future releases, and on occasion it’s a company who has a pretty legitimate claim. This week Apple’s going to be butting heads with Nokia Oyj before the International Trade Commission over intellectual property violations. But the battle isn’t going to end there. There’re battles that are also going to be fought against Motorola Inc. and HTC Corp in the future. It’s only a matter of time before we find out who the patent troll might be.

Apple’s game plan for the confrontation that’s about to play out in front of the ITC seems to be hiring more heavy-hitting lawyers. Not only do they already employ some of the world’s most rabid lawyers, but “Jobs, Apple’s chief executive officer, is firing back by recruiting lawyers who have fought for and against some of the world’s largest companies, including Microsoft, Intel Corp. and Broadcom Corp. Broadcom won a patent dispute with Qualcomm Inc. last year that ended with Qualcomm paying $891 million in cash over four years.” If you thought this patent fight was going to be a quick one, you may want to stick some popcorn in the microwave, because it’s more likely to be a long, drawn-out process.

Both Apple and Nokia have filed complaints against each other. Pundits have even gone so far as to suggest that the Motorola and HTC cases have more to do with Apple stopping Android in its tracks than it does Apple protecting their IP. Rob Enderle told Newsweek that “ The effort here is to stop Android through the trade commission.”

What do you think? Legitimate complaints or an attempt to stop the competition?

Article Via Bloomberg